MULTAN, Nov 8: Former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam has urged the government to take note of reports that the country will be deprived of precious foreign exchange owing to the spinning of lower counts yarn by the millers this year.

In a statement, he said spinners were not adding value to the commodity this year as they were earning exorbitant profits by procuring cotton from the domestic market at a price less than the international rate.

Mr Imam said that the Pakistani cotton growers were being paid a price at least Rs 150 to Rs 200 per 40kg less than the price their counterparts were fetching in rest of the cotton world.

He said owing to the cotton availability cheaply, the spinners had reportedly opted to make coarser yarn of 20 counts rather than employing more resources to spin it for fine quality yarn of 30 to 40 counts.

He said in the previous couple of years the millers had to procure cotton at a price more or less identical to the prices prevailing in the world market and, therefore, they had no other choice except to spin higher counts' yarn in order to earn profit and remain competitive in the international market.

He said the government should take stock of the situation and immediate measures must be taken to not even ensure international parity price to the growers, but also not let some profiteers to diminish the chances of earning much-needed foreign exchange because the higher the counts of yarn higher would be its price in the international market and vice versa.

He also criticized the Trading Corporation of Pakistan saying its cotton procurement policy had failed to ensure the officially-announced minimum phutti (seed cotton) price of Rs 925 per 40kg to the growers.

He said prices of phutti had been ranging mainly between Rs 800 to 875 per 40 kg in most of the cotton belt of the country. "The TCP intervention is benefiting the ginners only," he added.